The day when your braces get off gives you one of the most exciting feelings during your entire orthodontic treatment. However, this feeling can be messed up by the presence of white spots on your teeth. One common question in this field is whether braces do cause white lesions at the teeth’s surface after a successful orthodontic treatment.

LAST UPDATED: MAY 23, 2017

Are White Spots on Teeth caused by Orthodontic Braces?

Is it possible to fix those white spots after the completion of the treatment? In this article, I hope to answer these questions as well as let you understand the main reason a person gets white spots on his or her teeth after treatment by the use of braces.

FAQ

What are white spots?

White spots are porosities at the surface of a tooth that are caused by dental plaque. These chalky and white marks usually appear when acids that are created by the plaque have extracted a lot of minerals from the tooth. When minerals are taken away from a tooth, the way it reflects light changes. The area that is mostly affected by white lesions is between the brackets and the gums, where it is usually difficult to brush. In most cases, white spots will always develop under swollen gums, and this makes it difficult to detect them until the braces have been removed.

Studies conducted at universities have shown that white spots are very common with adolescents. In fact, 24% of white lesions occur among adolescents who have never used braces as a means of teeth correction. This is caused by a plaque that is left on their teeth. When the study was conducted among teenagers with braces, the number jumped so high to 50% with braces. Braces usually complicate the removal of plaque from teeth, and this is the main sausage factor of white spots on teeth.

How can I prevent white spots?

If you would like to prevent white spots on your teeth, you should consider the following approaches which are grouped into three subdivisions:

Hardening of the enamel surface

Plaque removal

Protecting of the enamel with a coating

If you would like to prevent white spots, the surest way is a plaque removal. Oral hygiene coaching is supposed to begin from the first day of visiting an orthodontist. In order to prevent plague, the practitioner provides the patient with a brushing chart, that he or she is supposed to follow during the entire treatment process, as well as food stuff that the patient is supposed to avoid. It comes with a stern emphasis that the patient should highly avoid acidic soda. The importance of removing the plague can be explained to the patients by the use of charts, and pictures of people who have been affected by serious white spots on their teeth due to the failure of removing the plague on time.

What is decalcification?

Orthodontists have been struggling to avoid decalcification of a patient’s teeth without giving limitations and expecting a high level of cooperation from the patient. Fluoride is one way of strengthening teeth and it makes the teeth to be resistant to demineralization by plague. The greatest question is the quantity of fluoride that should be used in order to prevent white spots and still have white healthy teeth at the same time.

CONSULTATION

Schedule a consultation with today to start towards a stunning smile. When you live in Ohio, it is easy to visit King Orthodontics. We have two facilities that are located in:

Fairborn

Centerville

We offer a complimentary consultation after completing an examination with modern medical images. You can schedule an appointment with either:

I love orthodontics. I love the challenge of creating healthy and beautiful smiles. I love the people I get to meet and interact with on a daily basis. I love taking care of my patients and giving them a smile they can be proud about.

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Being a 64 year old man I was not the least bit looking forward to getting braces. My case was a little different than most and needed a consult with Dr Sam King about how we were going to achieve our goal. I liked him the minute I met him. Dr. Sam always has a smile on his face. We set a course of action and moved forward. It worked perfectly. Dr Sam King and his staff gets my highest recommendation. As a side note, during my treatment I found out I had Prostate Cancer. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go any further with my treatment. When I mentioned this to Dr Sam he stopped what he was doing and sat down with me to talk this out. Every chair in the treatment room was full with patients. But he just stopped everything. He gave me his undivided attention for a few minutes. Offered his help in any way he could. I will never forget that.